Gift Books for the Gardener

From the pages of Fine Gardening magazine, Container Gardening provides expert advice on plant selection w/285 inspiring photographs. This valuable reference shows you how to choose just the right combination of plants to suit your taste.

Remarkable Trees of Virginia is the result of a four-year effort to document the states' largest, oldest, most historic, beautiful and beloved trees. Citizens of all ages nominated over 1,000 trees to the project website, and over 100 are featured in the book. This is a work of art and love. Co-authored by Nancy Ross Hugo and Dr. Jeffrey Kirwan, it would be a wonderful addition to anyone’s book collection.

Gardener’s Yoga – 21 gentle yoga positions that will relax and stretch the muscles that gardeners use the most. With beautiful watercolor illustrations this is a great little book. And at $12.95; perfect for the office gift exchange.

Pushing up Daisies by Rosemary Harris is a book I bought at the Philly Flower Show to read on the way home. And it was a good buy! As the Seattle Post Intelligencer says - “A clever mystery full of garden lore, fast-paced and engaging, with a heroine who isn’t afraid to get down in the dirt.”

Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Washington Post columnist Jeanne Marie Laskas, is laugh out loud funny. Laskas recounts the first year of living the country life after buying a farm with her significant other. Before the move, they both lived the city life in downtown Pittsburgh.

“gardening the soul” by Sister Stan. From the back cover: “Sister Stan, brought up on a farm in Dingle, County Kerry, looks to the earth that is so precious to our existence for inspiration throughout the year. Reflecting the garden’s changing rhythms through the season, gardening the soul offers a daily thought to keep us going as we face the challenges of modern life.”

Common Native Trees of Virginia - The native tree species found in Virginia’s forests are described in this book. This tool uses non-technical descriptions, with images of leaves, twigs, flowers and/or fruit to aid in identification. And at $2 it’s a great stocking stuffer or add on gift. Available through the Department of Forestry - http://www.dof.virginia.gov/website/online-store.shtml

Two Gardeners, A Friendship in Letters, edited by Emily Herring Wilson In 1958, Katharine S. White, an editor at The New Yorker and the wife of E. B. White, began writing a gardening column. The first prompted a fan letter from distinguished Southern gardener Elizabeth Lawrence, who wrote a weekly column for the Charlotte Observer. In more than a hundred and fifty letters, they discussed subjects ranging from bloom times in their respective zones to meetings with cantankerous plantsmen, the vicissitudes of old age.

And, there is more!

Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening by Fran Sorin. In Fran’s own words – “What I hope to do in this book is take you through my six stages of creative unfolding within the context of your garden: Imagining, Planning , Planting, Tending, Enjoying, and Completing.”

Anthony Eglin’s English Garden Mystery series – The Lost Garden, The Blue Rose and The Water Lily Cross

Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles series

Nora Roberts’ In the Garden Trilogy: Blue Dahlia, Black Rose and Red Lily

Simple Living is a book I read several years ago and enjoyed more than I expected. This is the story of and by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska. The back cover says it all. “In Los Angeles....they had all the trappings of life in the fast lane, yet they found themselves wanting more, even though the psychic cost was killing them. Those “wants” were the first to go when they decided to give it all up to run a family orchard in the Blue Ridge Mts. Simple Living is the story of their decision, as well as an intelligent, inspiring guide for others who would also choose to make their lives contain less and matter more.”

Becky Phillips, Loudoun County